Lando Norris penalty decision as F1 stewards explain huge title twist | F1 | Sport

The Formula 1 stewards have explained why Lando Norris was not penalised for overtaking Yuki Tsunoda while off track during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It was a key incident in the outcome of not only the race but also the title battle, which Norris won by just two points by finishing third on Sunday while chief rival Max Verstappen took victory.

Charles Leclerc threatened to challenge Norris for that final spot on the podium in the latter stages of the race, but his pace eventually faded and the Ferrari driver finished six-and-a-half seconds behind. But things would have been much tighter had the stewards decided that Norris’ overtake on Tsunoda was worthy of punishment.

Having stopped for fresh tyres and made light work of cutting back through the pack, the only car still ahead of Norris which had not yet visited the pit lane was that of Tsunoda. Red Bull had clearly left the Japanese out there to block the Brit as much as possible in the hope of stopping him from achieving the podium finish he needed to make sure than Verstappen could not deny him the title.

Tsunoda was told over the radio to do “all you can” to keep Norris behind. That resulted in a violent dive to the left at high speed while Norris tried to overtake, forcing the Brit over the white line defining the edge of the track as he moved past the Red Bull.

Both drivers were placed under investigation while the stewards reviewed the footage and everyone in the McLaren garage would have been holding their breath. But, in the end, they had nothing to worry about as the stewards decided no further action against Norris was necessary, while Tsunoda was penalised for his action.

Explaining their decision to clear Norris of wrongdoing, they wrote in a statement: “The driver of Car 4 [Norris] overtook Car 22 [Tsunoda] off track. However, this occurred because the driver of Car 22 made multiple moves defending his position against Car 4.

“Had Car 22 not made those moves, Car 4 would have overtaken it without going off track but moved off track to avoid contact with Car 22. Further, the Driving Standards Guidelines provide that if a car is ‘forced off’ (which was effectively what occurred here) it is not considered to have exceeded track limits. Whilst technically the overtake took place off track, we determine in view of the above, to take no further action.”

For his part, Tsunoda was given a five-second time penalty which contributed to him finishing outside the points, while a penalty point was added to his licence. That takes him to eight penalty points over the last 12 months, though he is not at risk of picking up more any time soon having lost his place on the F1 grid, replaced by Isack Hadjar at Red Bull.

The stewards penalised Tsunoda for “making more than one change of direction” while defending against Norris and wrote: “Car 4 was making an overtaking move on Car 22. Car 22 made a number of changes of direction which ultimately resulted in Car 4 having to go off track to avoid a collision. In doing so, Car 22 also effectively forced Car 4 off the track.”